That is laughable.... He is making big money right now.... He will have to GIVE UP big money just for the privelage of playing for that sucky MEM franchise...I am sure he is excited about that prospect.... MEM can play hardball all they want...go ahead draft him at #2...and if he doesn't come over in the next 2-3 years...then what? Will that idiot Chris Wallace still be the GM? After essentially WASTING the #2 pick on a player who they may not see....EVER? Or in 2-4+ years?Heck, will the Grizzlies even BE in memphis by then? Or will that cheapskate Heisley have sold them off to the highest bidder.... and does anyone see Gay or Mayo signing long term deals to play in MEM, after losing year after year after year? I am sure they are both GIDDY with excitement to continue playing for that losing team.... The bottom line is MEM NEVER has had the wherewithall to put together a winning franchise....even Jerry West couldn't save them...and now you have Chris Wallace...Just face it MEM fans, you are FRAKKED.....
I think Rubio may fall in the draft. He's a project player with a tremendous upside, but what team wants to take 3-4 years to develop him?
Yi didn't have any leverage. Everyone knew he wanted to get the hell out of China. Rubio, on the other hand, is playing in front of rabid fans in the second-best league in the world, where plenty of players are perfectly happy (Fran Vasquez, for example). Finally, Rubio's threat to stay in Europe is obviously legitimate because he will have to pay a shitload out of pocket to come over this year. Plus Yi wasn't as good. Or indeed, much good at all as it turned out. A better comparison (in terms of youth and perceived potential - not saying Rubio will turn out as good) is Kobe Bryant. He threatened to play in Europe unless he went where he wanted, and teams took it seriously because he could earn good money there and grew up there.
Let's be real here. I remember all sorts of people tripping over themselves to gush about Jianlian, saying Yi could be the next Dirk Nowitski and were absolutely in love with his potential. If Rubio was in last year's (deep) draft do you really think he'd be projected to go as high as second overall? He'd probably be in the top ten, but maybe just barely.
Did I say there was anything wrong with that? Rubio will probably be perfect for a rebuilding team where he can grow into the job with somewhat low expectations for immediate impact.
Fair enough, but Memphis would be taking a HUGE risk. Do you really think that Rubio will eat a huge chunk of money to come over and play for a sucky team (and Juan Carlos Navarro, Pau Gasol, and probably Marc Gasol too have told him just how sucky) when he can play out his contract with DKV (who have already offered to double his pay without re-negotiating) and wait for CSKA or Olympiakos to offer boatloads of cash to sign the biggest star in Europe with no buyout? Have you BEEN to Memphis? It ain't Barcelona. Meanwhile, both OJ Mayo (who sees himself as a PG) and Mike Conley know that their franchise tried to draft a PG. If you don't like Evans or Holliday, how about Harden? More than one writer has compared him to Brandon Roy - a 2Roy backcourt sounds interesting to me. I thought of that option, but didn't want to overcomplicate matters. We should offer Sergio plus $3M to Memphis to swap picks. Sergio doesn't have leverage...
If you were Micheal Heisley or Chris Wallace and somebody came knocking with that deal (and it wasn't Mitch Kupchak on the line) how long would it take for you to hang up the phone?
Yes sir. Not rabid or anything though, its kind of hard to follow a non-LA Cali team while living in bumfuck New Hampshire.
I kind of quietly root for the Kings too as my second favorite team. I grew to really like them back when they had Doug Christie, Vlade, et al., it didn't hurt that they had Rick Adelman and Geoff Petrie (former Blazers) running things.
You mean Chad "Pavel Podkolzine will be better than Shaq" Ford? Meanwhile Bill Simmons actually calls one right: Well, it wouldn't have been legal, because he would've been 17. Think about that: the fact that his name would even come up at that age is amazing enough. And in fact, he's better (more valuable) than OJ Mayo (and almost certainly plays better defense). There were all kinds of questions about Mayo. I bet Miami (who weren't pleased to settle for Beasley) would've strongly considered him at 2. Looking at last year's draft there's a lot of solid players but the only likely stars I see are Rose and maybe Randolph. Who knows - this draft might turn out better.
No, that would be Nikoloz Tskitishvili. (And besides, it's Bargnani.) I love people who act like every non-American will be a bust because of Euro-busts of the past. They conveniently forget about Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, pretty much the entire Argentine team (who were PLAYING in Europe), Rudy Fernandez, Nicolas Batum, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Arvydas Sabonis, etc, etc. I'm sure at least as high a % of American College players have been busts. For every player in this draft coming out of the NCAA I can name at least one player with identical or better college credentials who was a complete bust. Wouldn't that be tedious?
This is the same guy who did the Pau Gasol "trade", right? To be one of those people I would need to be pithed first. (It might be worth it for Heisley's money...)
The trouble is Jerry West isn't a former Blazer, so it's tough to steal a player when you don't have your former GM "The Logo" steering his protege, Wallace, towards the "best" deal. At best we've got Lionel Hollins or Damon Stoudamire to help give us some pull.
